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by tomatoes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, i'm making lance cuban and no one can stop me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:13:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7764490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatoes/pseuds/tomatoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you honestly telling me that you're not gonna take this bet? It's literally just five seconds of my life every day for 2 months. I think we can handle that."</p><p>Lance groaned and took his hand. "You'd better not lose your phone, asshole."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> me at 1:30 am with 12 reference tabs open trying to find the perfect major for a fictional character: what the fuck

Week 1: Nov. 7-Nov. 14

DAB CITY: ABSOLUTELY NOT

mountain dew: absolutely yes

mountain dew: hunk will side with me watch

mountain dew added HUNK THE HUNK to the conversation.

DAB CITY: why didn't you just switch to the #ogsquad chat?

mountain dew: dramatic effect

mountain dew: yo hunk should lance try to keep a streak going with keith for 2 months on sc?? i promised both of them $50 and keith said "sure, okay"

HUNK THE HUNK: just 8 weeks?

mountain dew: yea

HUNK THE HUNK: $50 is $50

HUNK THE HUNK: i gotta go i'm in class and i think the guy behind me sees me texting

HUNK THE HUNK left the conversation.

mountain dew: hunk approved

mountain dew: dooooooo iiiiiiiittttt

Lance turned off his phone and flipped it over onto his desk. He could hear the muffled vibrations, which were probably from Pidge calling him a chicken. Which he wasn't.

He just really, really didn't like Keith.

And this wasn't a one-sided feud—Lance knew that Keith wasn't too fond of him either. The only reason they were even ever around each other was from mutual friends, and even then everyone in the group made sure to separate them as much as possible. It was honestly a blessing having Shiro to keep them in check.

But even with Shiro around, it still got ugly. He still cringes when he thinks about what their first encounter was like.

_"I was right next to you during orientation and you didn't even see me? I thought we were, like, rivals or something! Like, Keith and Lance, Lance and Keith! Who's gonna come out on top?"_

_"...Well, me, obviously."_

_Lance had felt his face go red—_ "So tan and yet you still blush like a tomato," _his Mamá had always said—and he jabbed a finger into Keith's chest, who's expression twisted into a snarl. He—_

Lance screwed his eyes shut and shook his head. He didn't really like to think about that. He didn't like to think about any part of he and Keith's relationship, really. It had been chaotic and messy from the beginning, and there didn't seem to be a way to fix it, so it was easier to leave it be.

His phone buzzed again.

dadther: Can someone please explain why I was added to this group chat?

\--

Keith scoffed. God, Lance hated it when he scoffed. He would always execute it so perfectly, leaning back in his chair millimeters from tipping yet never doing so, resting his arms behind his head so it showed just a sliver of skin between his equally tight and black shirt and jeans, rolling his dark grey eyes (they're not purple, Pidge, this isn't a fucking anime) in a way that hadn't yet been left behind in his edgy middle school phase. Lance hated it.

"I hate it when you do that."

"I know."

Lance had all but forgotten what they had been arguing about, so he let the conversation drop. It was quiet for a minute, Keith fussing over something on his phone in the way one does when they want to avoid conversation, Lance looking at the table in the tense way one does when they want to start a conversation and don't know how. They had been unlucky enough to get stuck together in one of the rare moments when the rest of their friend group wasn't around, making for an awkward 10 or so minutes before someone else showed up. Lance's palms were starting to sweat against the table, so he pulled them onto his lap.

"So how about that bet?"

Lance nearly jolted out of his seat. His eyes snapped to meet Keith's unwavering stare from across the table. He squirmed in his seat. "Can you stop staring at me like that?"

"Like what?"

Lance let out a low whistle. "You have really bad RBF."

Keith looked confused. "What's that?"

Lance mentally filed _Updog Joke: MUST TRY_ in the section of his brain reserved for Keith. "Never mind."

Keith put his phone down. "I'm serious about that bet, though. Are you gonna do it or not?"

"Why would I do it?"

"Because we're broke college students, Lance, and I don't want to live off of Cup Ramen and sticky rice for the rest of my life."

"How are we even gonna keep it up, though? Like, what if—"

"Are you honestly telling me that you're not gonna take this bet? It's literally just five seconds of my life every day for 2 months. I think we can handle that."

Lance groaned and took his hand. "You'd better not lose your phone, asshole."

\--

November 7, 3:22 pm

DAB CITY: bet's on. are you happy

mountain dew: YES

ASSHOLE: As long as I get my fucking money

mountain dew: you will dude

momther: what bet? what's going on?

dadther: Is this what you were talking about earlier?

mountain dew: keith and lance are gonna keep a streak on sc for 2 months and theyll both get cash money

mountain dew: im talking fat stacks

mountain dew: like legit paper

HUNK THE HUNK: WE GET IT YOU HAVE A JOB

\--

Day one of the streak was oddly normal. It was just like when Keith would send a mass snap to everyone in his contacts and also put it on his story because he had no idea how social media worked. But this one was just for Lance, and Lance knew that, and it made him feel weird, like his stomach had static in it. It was a slightly blurry picture of he and Shiro's shared dorm as if Keith didn't even have the ability to chill long enough to take a picture. A mug of something was in his lap and some house renovation show was on the tv. The caption was simply "hi" and there was an emoji stuck in the corner. Lance took a minute to imagine Keith frustratedly trying to pull it out of there, each time just bringing up the time set.

And then it snapped back to the chat screen, a red square outline next to "Keith".

He double tapped it and took a picture of his ceiling from where he was lying on his bed. He captioned it "hey", and refreshed the screen until he saw that Keith had opened it. He didn't receive another.

55 more days to go.

\--

One of the benefits of having totally different majors was that Keith and Lance hardly ever crossed paths aside from when they met up with their friends. The snapchats were like seeing something you weren't supposed to see, like peeking backstage at a play or stealthily looking into the girl's bathroom when you were in elementary school. There wasn't anything interesting in there, but there was the rush of seeing something you had never seen before.

This was something Lance experienced when he witnessed The Wall.

Keith had managed to sneak some chalkboard paint into his dorm at some point, apparently, because a good segment of the wall in his room was black and covered in sticky notes, pinned up papers, and chalky scribbles. Lance caught a 5 second glimpse on a snap simply captioned "streak" 4 days in.

"what is that???" Lance typed over a shot of his keyboard.

"Just a wall in my room. It keeps me organized" Keith replied, a less blurry shot of The Wall coming back to him.

"what do you keep on there??"

"Sometimes I try to figure out the plots of the shows that Shiro watches before" Lance tapped to the next snap, "They reveal who the killer was or whatever".

Another picture of his keyboard, "that's pretty cool".

Was this a conversation? Were they having a civil conversation right now?

"I have to go to class", Keith sent with a blurry snap of his feet.

"ok", Lance sent back dumbly. He turned off his phone and threw it onto his bed, and stared blankly at his laptop screen for 15 minutes.

Weird.

\--

November 14, 7:57 pm

ASSHOLE: Apparently that fire emoji thing with the number next to our names is the streak. We're on day 7

momther: well, neither of you have killed each other yet, so I think we'll be fine.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 8/14/16 (yes literally the next morning ok ok): I forgot to make this a multi-chaptered work, which, cut me some slack, this was posted at 2 am. More will be written!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: i'm gonna work on that fanfic  
> overwatch: hi  
> me: ah, of course. time to play you for 7 hours straight

Week 2: Nov. 15-Nov. 21

November 15, 10:21 am

momther: how goes it with Keith?

DAB CITY: pretty okay

DAB CITY: it's kind of strange actually talking to him

momther: ?

momther: what do you mean, actually talking?

DAB CITY: we've had like actual conversations

DAB CITY: only a few but it's strange

momther: livin in my own world

momther: didn't understand

DAB CITY: DON'T YOU DARE

\--

It had been strange, at first.

He would see little blips of Keith's day, sometimes more than one when he forgot if he had sent one already. Strangely normal things, like getting coffee, or walking downtown, which was different than the blood sacrifices Lance had expected. ("No, not really, Hunk, I'm joking.") They were always captioned with one word, like "Hi" or "Streak" or "Neat" over a picture of the moon, one time. The longest caption so far was a picture of a puppy with its face squished and tongue sticking out against the window of a pet shop, the words "This is you" underneath it. Lance sent back his best imitation of the puppy's face, captioning it with "you caught me".

Normal friend stuff.

Which was strange, because they weren't friends.

"Maybe you are, and you just don't want to admit it because you have this weird stubborn streak. Which is less than a streak and more of a canyon, actually." Hunk said at lunch on Wednesday.

"The only streak I have is the one with Keith," Lance said, an over-the-top humorous tone in his voice. "No, I know I'm being stubborn. It's my thing, remember?"

"Yeah, it was back in tenth grade when you were convinced that Sasha liked you. _Which_ she didn't." Hunk finished quickly before Lance could fit in an indignant "But she did!".

Pidge appeared and slumped onto the table bonelessly. Lance rested a knowing hand on her head and continued to talk with Hunk. "Plus, what do you mean by back in tenth grade?" He asked, using his free hand to make air quotes.

"I mean you're being childish about this. Keith isn't so tough to be friends with if you just talk to him. I honestly think it's already happening to you."

"He's right. Accept your gay." Pidge mumbled, her voice muffled by her arms.

"First of all, I'm bi and ready to fly and you know that, so shut up. Second of all, Keith hates me."

"It's bi and ready to try, you fucking pilot nerd. And no, he doesn't. At worst he gets frustrated with you, and who can blame him, honestly." Pidge snickered, dodging Lance's attempted flick to her head.

There was a lull as Hunk and Lance finished eating, and Pidge buried her head back in her arms. After about 5 minutes, Lance spoke up again.

"You really think he doesn't hate me?"

Hunk sighed like a mother whose child had just told her they didn't make the soccer team. "I'm positive. Keith doesn't really hate anyone, he's just hot-headed."

Lance huffed out a laugh that was really more of a scoff. "Alright. If you think so."

\--

November 16, 11:05 pm

DAB CITY: do you hate me?

November 17, 12:37 am

ASSHOLE: Of course not

ASSHOLE: Did you think I hated you?

DAB CITY: i mean kinda

DAB CITY: we didn't really start off on the right foot

ASSHOLE: That doesn't mean I automatically hate you forever

ASSHOLE: I think you're fine

ASSHOLE: I can't believe the first text you've ever sent directly to me is "do you hate me"

DAB CITY: certainly says something about our relationship

ASSHOLE: Well let's fix that

DAB CITY: alright then :^)

ASSHOLE: First rule of our friendship is stop with the dumb emojis

DAB CITY: :^) :^) :^)

ASSHOLE: Goddamnit Lance

_Lance changed nickname to Keith from ASSHOLE to asshole?_

\--

Day 11 was a blurry picture of the outside of a froyo shop in a strip mall near their campus, captioned "New ice cream place". Lance sent back "fascinating". "Keith sent back "Don't sass me".

All in routine.

"Wait a minute," Lance said out loud to no one. He took a blurry picture of his wall. "wait that's froyo. do you know what froyo is?"

"No?"

"HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT FROYO IS"

"Idk never had one where I grew up"

"i'm taking you for froyo immediately"

"Ok"

Lance felt like that was a good place to end the conversation, so he put his phone down and continued work on his essay. Until, much like a flashlight which had been whacked against someone's palm multiple times, his consciousness switched on.

November 19, 2:40 pm

DAB CITY: I THINK I JUST ASKED KEITH ON A DATE

mountain dew: HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHSKAHDNACDNASCFNSNCKSDNVSDBNJ

DAB CITY: I'M BEING SERIOUS

DAB CITY: YOU'RE LIKE MY ONLY OTHER GAY FRIEND PLEASE HELP

mountain dew: keith is gay

mountain dew: like not blanket term gay im talking 100% grass fed homo

DAB CITY: oh ok

DAB CITY: i mean cool i guess

DAB CITY: how am i supposed to react to that

mountain dew: youre supposed to react by dating him but you already have that covered

mountain dew: congrats youre ahead of the curve

DAB CITY: fuck

mountain dew: ok ok ok seriously what di you say to him

mountain dew: *did

DAB CITY: he sent me a pic of the new froyo place and he called it ice cream so i was like "thats froyo do you not know what froyo is" and he doesn't so i said i'd have to take him for some

mountain dew: wtf

mountain dew: first of all how does he not know what froyo is???

DAB CITY: right

mountain dew: second of all thats not a date thats just being a good friend

mountain dew: youre fine stop stressing

DAB CITY: i never stress it's bad for your skin

\--

He was doing this. He was standing in line at the froyo store, behind at least 4 families with children, holding two froyo cups filled with as many flavors as he could fit. Because of someone he hated a week and a half ago.

(Did he ever really hate Keith, though?)

He piled some generic toppings on top and slid them onto the scale as the dead-eyed employee rung him up. He shot her a sympathetic smile and slipped a $5 bill into the tip jar.

The walk back with hands full of froyo was a bit strange, to say the least. He was grateful to finally be able to put the cups in the minifridge and unfreeze his hands before texting Keith.

\--

November 20, 4:02 pm

DAB CITY: where are you rn?

asshole?: Just got out of class why

DAB CITY: come to my dorm

DAB CITY: here i'll send you the address

\--

Keith showed up about twenty minutes later.

"Hey, what's up?"

Lance tore his eyes away from his goddamn shoulders in that goddamn jacket for long enough to speak. "Check it out," He said, pulling the cups out of the fridge. "I got you froyo. Still can't believe you don't know what it is, honestly."

Keith's face softened. _His smile is lopsided,_ Lance noticed for no good reason at all. "I—I got a bunch of different flavors, so they might taste weird together, I just figured you should try all of them. I also got a bunch of toppings—"

"Thanks." Keith said quietly, looking at the froyo where it sat on the counter. His cheeks were red, and he was still smiling. Lance felt like he had just chugged sparkling water.

"I'll grab spoons."

\--

November 20, 9:19 pm

DAB CITY: i bought froyo for keith to try cause he's never had any and he ended up staying here for 5 hours and we just hung out and watched hgtv

DAB CITY: what the hell is happening

mountain dew: oh my god you actually took him on a date

DAB CITY: noononono i don't like him

mountain dew: unbelievable

DAB CITY: NOOO STOP

mountain dew: alright whatever

mountain dew: but if im right im doing a speech at your wedding

DAB CITY: well you're wrong and i have a paper to write so goodnight madam

mountain dew: night homo

\--

Lance plugged in his phone and flopped back on his bed.

"Goddamnit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Fro...yo?"
> 
> AAAAAGHHH THIS IS REALLY BAD I HAVE NO ENERGY TO FIX IT THOUGHHH
> 
> (if it's not clear, all the texts are seen on lance's phone, so they're his own personal nicknames etc. cause i'm pretty sure keith would've shut down "ASSHOLE" if he could've seen it)

**Author's Note:**

> The Defenders of the Universe are a bunch of fucking memers and you can't change my mind.
> 
> ANYWAY Holly's back with another college au.
> 
> Also, quick majors guide because I spent a long time deciding on them:  
> Lance - Aviation Flight Training  
> Keith - Crime Scene Investigations  
> Pidge - Computer Programming  
> Hunk - Aerospace Engineering, minor in Culinary Arts (if that's even possible)  
> Shiro - Planetary Astronomy  
> Allura - Ethnic Studies  
> Coran - History Professor  
> How do they all attend the same school? I have no idea.
> 
> tumblr: sixpiecechickenmcnobody


End file.
